I’ve been reading Osho’s book “The Inner Journey” and I’m in love. It’s so well written and brings about such great peace.

The main concept of “The Inner Journey” is the fact that over the course of generations we’ve chosen to neglect the soul. In the book they call it “the navel”, our life-energy.

When born our life-energy comes from our mother through our umbilical cord, after cut we experience our first instance of separation from our mother’s. This first instance of separation will notify whether the baby is healthy or ill. After cutting the cord a healthy baby should cry knowing their life-energy source has gone away. Their life-source up until yesterday is no longer. If a baby doesn’t cry after the cord being cut it is most likely the baby is sick or close to death.

Our greatest source of life-energy comes from our navel, our soul, a function of the body that has been neglected.

Over the course of centuries man has developed his functions subconsciously. We breathe without thinking, eat without thinking, sleep, everything needed to survive we do without thinking.

Sadly over the course of this time man has become corrupted due to the nature of evolution. Man has lost touch with being, lost touch with the navel center, rather we have focused all the attention on the brain.

Over the course of time we overdeveloped the brain and neglected to develop the navel. Eyes can’t hear just as ears can’t see, the brain and navel act the same way; the navel can’t function for the brain and the brain can’t function for the navel, they each have their own purpose. When we choose to neglect the needs of the navel we are putting pressure on the brain to comprehend and rationalize something it doesn’t fully understand.

Man’s brain is the most delicate thing in the world, it handles so much stress it’s a wonder how it doesn’t just break down and become mad. We hardly have any idea how delicate the nerves in the brain are, the nerves which carry the entire burden, the whole weight of life.

In order to access the life-energy of the navel center we must first relax our brain and whole body. The more relaxed the brain is the more sensitive it’ll become, you’ll start hearing and feeling every little thing from the heartbeat to the coming and going of your breath.

Being free of contemplation, free from thoughts is the basis of life. There is no significant process of life that’s related to thinking that’s why it’s so important to get into a deep sleep, so your processes can function without hindrance.

We need to free ourselves of anger; we need to learn to love. We cannot hate and love at the same time they can’t co-exist. Just as the heart cannot live and be at death, the heart cannot hate and love simultaneously.

Man’s mind is like a pendulum from one extreme to another, never staying in the middle.

We must learn to love. We must learn the spectrum of hate, we must understand the absence of hate isn’t love it’s just a lesser hate. We cannot love and hate at the same time; we either live through love or live through hate, one or the other.

Living through hate and anger, the heart center remains undeveloped and the impossible starts happening. What the navel and heart can’t complete the person will attempt to complete with his brain causing even more tension and stress.

Relationships from the brain center are based off intellect and only run so deep. Love is blind and arises from levels so deep it becomes difficult for us to understand the reasons for it. Love based off of intellect will never last; we cannot love through our brain only our heart.

Genuine, true friendship comes from the navel center. Love binds, friendship gives freedom. Friendship does not become someone’s master, it doesn’t imprison, it frees. One who is friend to all will reach the divine sooner or later because his relationships are happening with everyone’s center; soon he will become bound to the navel center of the universe.

The flow of breath changes moment to moment according to your state of mind. Either you change your mind and the breath changes or you change your breath and the mind changes. The deeper and slower you breathe the more your navel center will develop. As long as your breathing remains harmonious your thinking will become less.

It’s so easy to get inside your head and convince yourself not to do something. Its so easy to let fear control us. Its so easy to begin something and then to just put it down. It’s easy to give up when things get tough. But what’s easy isn’t always what’s right.

More often then not we opt to take the path of least resistance. Its just so much easier to be free of criticism or judgement from others. A lot of us battle ourselves everyday, the last thing we want to do is rub people the wrong way and create more conflict. As a means of avoiding conflict and failure its easier just to ignore the possibilities of what could be. It’s easier for us to hold onto our pent up emotions and accept what is rather than going against the current.

Struggling to be happy we remain stagnate and actually begin show signs of physical and mental decline. We begin to lose our purpose and reshuffle our priorities. We begin to see life through a short lens living as if we were to die tomorrow.

The path of least resistance is an emotional unstable journey which guarantees jealousy and resentment. How far down does the rabbit hole go? I’m not going to participate to find out and you shouldn’t either. Escape the darkness, climb into the light.

Getting inspired is different for everyone, what inspires me might not even interest you. For me, inspiration comes from engaging in new music, new read materials or personal achievements. Taking part in my personal development journey my physical and mental growth is its own reward.

How you view challenge will determine your levels of stress. Stress is the enemy, don’t live with the enemy.

Focus on aspects under your control. Have a plan, be proactive, and always be ready to take the next step. Remember life will knock you down multiple times before you’re even able to sniff what it is you’re working towards. The key is perseverance, always getting back up. Don’t let failure define you instead let it guide you on how to approach the next step.

Always keep the end in mind and remember your core principles. It’s easy to get lost and forget our purpose behind our actions when we don’t receive immediate rewards. Remember to maintain a long-term perspective think today’s sacrifices can be tomorrow’s blessings if you act accordingly.

Life’s not fair, we can’t always set out to do everything we wish to but what’s important is we try to do everything we possibly can. Don’t live with regrets and unwanted tension. Stay determined and choose to participate in altering the course of your life for the better. Choose to be hopeful and live with purpose each and every day.

Challenge yourself; challenge yourself to learn all you can, to beat your own personal records, to be fully independent, challenge yourself to be a balanced whole person. Most of all challenge yourself to rise to the occasion and never give up.

Life’s not easy; don’t resort to feeling content with your unhappiness. If you’re not happy with your current situation do something about it.

It’s so easy to get mesmerized. Whether it be fantastic writing or eye-capturing graphics the fantasy is real. We’ve become so subdued by the reflection that we become lost and disassociated in our actual lives.

Rather than binge watching shows/movies we should be more deliberate with our entertainment. Its fine to get lost into a show but at what cost?

Our sources of entertainment have become sinkholes for our behaviour. We should be more deliberate with how we spend our time. Watching TV is fine but watching TV for two/three hours every single night gets a bit costly. We begin to avoid the daily practices we should be participating in. Television breaks will, it depletes willpower.

It’s like sitting in a closed room with nothing but donuts in front of you. It’s only a matter of time before you break and have one. This is the same kind of influence television has on us. Although we may be able to avoid the television periodically, it’s only a matter of time before we plug ourselves back in.

Whatever happened to going outside or reading a book? It seems so unnatural this day in age. Considering most people experience anxiety or ADHD symptoms it makes what should be usual definitely unusual.

All of our unhealthy symptoms are a sign of neglect. Neglecting to be informed, neglecting nature, and neglecting to care for one’s self. We need to begin to challenge ourselves, we need to unplug from technology and begin to enjoy the outdoors. We need quiet and piece of mind.

Being constantly bombarded by messages and never slowing down can become a barrier to one’s personal reflection. We need a quiet pause to analyze and evaluate, to follow our trains of thought and to do our best thinking.

Is exercising really worth being healthy? How much exercising is necessary to “be healthy”? What other opportunities come with being healthy? How do I start? these are the questions I’ll be answering in this article. A lot of people associate being healthy with being rich or having money. Having money or being rich isn’t really relevant to being healthy. Being healthy is under our own control whether rich or poor. Of course the rich will have access to possible resources the rest of us don’t but ultimately we all need to suffer the same to get to where we want to be.

Essentially being healthy is triumphant when considering quality of life. Having strong health we are better able to take on physical adventures and endure mental turmoil. With better health we are able to embrace and fully enjoy life as it is meant to be.

This is why taking care of you is so important. It’s not about being the best looking person on the planet or having a hulk-like physique. It’s about appreciating who you are and taking control of your life. It’s about knowing you can overcome whatever obstacle whether physical or mental.

Not everyone is born into great power. A lot of us are born below the poverty line and because of this we have barriers to our happiness. Happiness isn’t having money but money does allow happiness to flow. We can attain happiness through personal growth and what better propels personal growth than income. Having the income to buy the things you need to move forward is a huge relief. Constant burdens of debt and financial trouble easily put a strain on life making the future seem hopeless. For these reasons financial stability is extremely important when it comes to bettering yourself. Regardless if you love the job or not it’s important to have consistent income. Be gritty and don’t give up.

Another method that brings us to value ourselves is the service we render to others. We all need a purpose and a reason to get up each morning. Sometimes we lose our purpose and forget who we are when we live in isolation with our thoughts. We need to be free with the outside world. We need to find reasons to get outside, our reasons to be healthy and our reasons to live a truly great life. Having influences outside of ourselves helps this. We need a support system when times are tough, a mentor to teach us wisdom and a family to call home. Love is everything. Love, love, love don’t forget it.

Without imagination we are unable to see into tomorrow, without imagination we must live with our pains and are forced to live the day-to-day reality hopelessly. With imagination we are able to establish a vision and more able to customize ourselves to acquire the tools needed to thrive in tomorrow’s world. With vision and imagination we are able to project the potential concerns and able to make the changes needed to succeed.

Imagination and a creative approach to problem solving is essential but without willpower nothing is possible.

Willpower is action and without action we are left in our minds to speculate. Refuse to speculate choose to participate instead.

Participate by creating a plan of action:

Stop to consider where you want to see yourself within 1 year, 3 years and 5+ years.Determine what you hope to have accomplished within these periods of time.

Fill in the gapsWhat are your strengths and weaknesses and where can you improve?Determine which skills are necessary and which are irrelevant moving forward.What will need to be learnt that could potentially increase earning potential?

Be proactiveConsider all the threats and situations that may arise. Have strategies planned for dealing with these issues.

Determine short, medium & long term goals. Be realistic and reasonable.“God grant me the serenity to accept things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference” – Reinhold Niebuhr.

Create milestones & rewardsBreak down each goal step-by-step. Determine a proper course of action in order to have these goals accomplished within the given timeframe. Reward yourself in new and exciting ways when you finish on time.

Revise, Re-evaluate and Reorganize.Determine whether your plan of action was reliable and efficient.What worked? What didn’t work? What could have been done better?

Your plan of action is a rule of measurement which we can more precisely evaluate or progression towards our goals. Be realistic with your plan. If you refuse to follow your plan of action don’t expect to reach your goals, its your choice.